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wolcott1, 5 years agoHere you are Hedge. Like who is that man in the third frame?? There's more to come...

Hedgewalker, 5 years agoVery eclectic groupings.The first one is quite different.I really love the one with the girls and dogs,I love pics that have the predater and prey living together in peace.And yeah what is up with the hatman ?Very cool !

wolcott1, 5 years agoVery eclectic is the word! The clownish guy with the toothache is different to say the least, considered comical I suppose - a bit surreal to me! I like your take on the predator and prey togetherness theme. The children look a little startled in the last frame lol, but perhaps they have an expression of wonder. I'm glad I have this book. I only acquired it a few years ago, and just looked through it for the second time last week.

BeauxPurdy, 5 years agoIt just keeps getting better, Thank-you for these wondeful images!

wolcott1, 5 years agoBeauxPurdy, Your post cards are amazing so I take that as a real compliment, thanks!

vetraio50, 5 years agoSing a song of sixpence. A pocket full of rye. Four and twenty blackbirds. Baked in a pie. When the pie was opened. The birds began to sing......

But what are doing with those pigeons down below?

wolcott1, 5 years agoVet, Exactly the question I was asking myself, lol. Hopefully not getting ready to be baked in a pie...

vetraio50, 5 years agoI now see there's a title to that picture of the pigeons. Can I get you to have a look at it? I think they might be readying them for message duty. It might be a war thing.

wolcott1, 5 years agoVetraio, there is a caption written in French under the pigeon picture partly obscured. The best I can see is Le Gav(several letters obscured) des Pigeons. Perhaps a pigeon is being hand fed (gavage). It is a large image that seems to be cut out from a french text maybe a newspaper. There is french writing on the back (I pulled back a corner). I like your theory about the pigeons being messenger carriers for wartime. I'm sure that's what it is. Thanks!

vetraio50, 5 years agoHi wolcott! It might be a little more sinister than a war theme. 'Le gavage' is normally associated with geese and ducks. Remember those stories of 'forced feeding' of poor animals by farmers to fatten them up for bigger livers; "foie gras"?
It was a practise confined to le Périgord & le Midi in France where an expert would use an tube-like object called an "embuc" to pour feed down the neck of the bird.
There's a version of the engraving for sale on ebay France at the moment, taken from a a magazine. Probably where your grandmother got hers as well.

On a TV programme I saw how the English gentry had dovecotes (des pigeonniers) where they kept birds to breed. Huge towers where the birds nested and provided eggs on a daily basis for the lord's table. The young birds were eaten too as a ready source of protein.

Perhaps the engraving shows an industrial form of readying young birds for the restaurants of Paris. Wiki also mentions the squab and frog pie as a treat for Friday food. Perhaps your grandmother was 'meating out" the idea of four and twenty black birds.

Here in Australia we eat "meat pies" as a form of fast food. One of the major producers of these Ozzie favorites is a firm called Four'N Twenty founded in 1947 and still active today. Their logo has a pie open with lots of blackbirds flying out.http://prismreptilerobot.net/archives/2010/02/20/992/

wolcott1, 5 years agoWow, I can't believe you saw the same engraving on ebay. My photographic skills leave much to be desired but I can see now that they are in a huge warehouse like building and the man in the picture is indeed force feeding the bird- thus the word "gavage." Pigeon pie- well, well, lol.
Vetraio you are amazing putting this all together ;) Thanks for sharing. So much fun!

vetraio50, 5 years agoHappy New Year!
I think grandma was pretty out there.
Did you see the little cat eyeing off the pie, too?
She's created a series of images that bounce off each other.
More than just 'collage'; there's a term for it, but not much used: 'concrete poetry'.

What about the title underneath the Caucasian in his 'papakhi'?
Why the geraniums (or palergoniums)?

And the title underneath those horses is " ...scouting danger' with those very wary kids and leaping tiger and wolves after a ram.

She seems to have a real feeling for animals and their plight.

wolcott1, 5 years agoVet, My mom was a collage artist! It must have skipped a couple of generations from my great, great grandmother to my mom. My grandmother grew up with all kinds of pets including a miniature pot bellied pig. It's nice to see the connections.

The title underneath the man says "A Cossack. (By Permission of Cassell, Petter and Galpin)" Etching by H. Koch. Perhaps at the time he was considered exotic by my great, great grandmother. Yes, I love the kitty peering out (at the birds). She must have had a good time putting it all together.
Happy New Year Vet!!!

wolcott1, 5 years agoThanks Oz, Vanskyock24, CantStopBuying,Lisa, Scandi, Vintagemad and jojomang for the likes and loves!!